Wireless communication devices, such as cellular phones, exchange communications with communication network wireless access nodes over communication access channels. Each wireless access node has a finite number of access channels for connecting wireless devices. A wireless device that connects to a wireless access node must request one of these access channels before the wireless device can exchange communications with the communication network.
The access requests can either be granted or they can fail. The access requests can fail for various reasons. For example, the communication network may not receive the access request, the wireless device may not receive the access request response from the communication network, or the communication network may deny the access request. Any of these failures may occur due to operational problems with the wireless device.